Pope Francis Confirms Vatican's "Gay Lobby"

Earlier this year, the Vatican became the proud new owner of a city-sized-block of real estate that was also home to Rome's largest gay bathhouse. The contract, suited for a new Million Dollar Listing spinoff on Bravo, only added to rumors of a "gay lobby" existing within the city-state's walls that started churning with the Vatileaks scandal.

But that was all just hearsay/heresy ... until now.

Pope Francis has confirmed both that the sky is blue and that there are gay men dressed in pretty, ornate robes inside the Vatican. And he vows to smoke them out so that something "can be done" about them.

Back in February Italian media claimed that a secret report by cardinals investigating the leaks included allegations of corruption and blackmail attempts against gay Vatican clergymen, and on the other hand, favouritism based on gay relationships."In the Curia, there are truly some saints, but there is also a current of corruption," the pope is quoted as having said during an audience last week with CLAR (the Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious Men and Women).

"There is talk of a 'gay lobby' and it's true, it exists. We have to see what can be done," the 76-year-old pontiff is quoted as saying on the Reflection and Liberation website, which was flagged up by religious news agencies on Tuesday. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi told AFP: "It was a private meeting, I have no comment to make." The secret report compiled by a committee of three cardinals for the pope's eyes only was the result of a broad inquiry into leaks of secret Vatican papers last year -- a scandal known as "Vatileaks".